Michele Kang is a billionaire entrepreneur who has used her fortune to uplift women in sports. She built her business career by working in consulting for various Fortune 500 companies and eventually founded Cognosante, a healthcare information technology company, in 2008. She ended up selling the company to Accenture in 2024.
Good morning from Michele Kang and our Olympic Gold Medalist Trinity Rodman 🥇🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/m90z159Lv0
— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) August 11, 2024
Long before she started her business career, Kang was conquering the streets of Seoul, South Korea. She is the youngest of three daughters and grew up in a lively household. Every evening, her family ate dinner together where her parents encouraged Kang and her siblings to share about their day. Alongside her sisters, Kang led a very active life as a child.
“I was what one could say, a tomboy,” Kang said in an interview with Forbes. “I loved playing outside and…all kinds of sports.”
Throughout her childhood, Kang had many career goals, including becoming an opera singer, a professional basketball player, and a teacher. Her ambition persisted as she figured out where she wanted to go to college.
Inspired by her father, Kang set her sights on moving to the United States to pursue a business degree. In 1950, Kang’s father also relocated to America to receive a college education during the United States’ Japanese relocation efforts.
After some pushback from her parents, Kang was able to convince them to loan her the money to pay for her schooling.
“I went to my parents and told them that if they loaned me the money they were saving for my future wedding, it would pay for one year of college in America,” Kang said to the Horatio Alger Association. “After that, I would find a way to pay for the rest of my education.”
Kang attended the prestigious University of Chicago, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. She went on to get a master’s degree in Public and Private Management at Yale University. After graduating from her master’s program, Kang pursued a career in consulting, because to her, it was a multi-faceted way to get into business.
Her career skyrocketed when she founded her technology firm in 2008, but Kang is well known for her role in the development of womens soccer.
Kang was introduced to the world of professional women’s soccer during the FIFA Womens World Cup in 2019. Some of her peers encouraged her to join the Washington Spirit’s ownership group, and she officially joined in 2020. She later became the Spirit’s majority owner in 2022 and the first woman of color to be a majority owner of a NWSL team.
In 2023, she became a majority owner of the OL Lyonnes and London City Lionesses. Earlier this month, she also bought Lyonne’s male counterpart team, Lyon.
Aside from her involvement in team ownership, Kang has led multiple efforts to increase visibility and resources for female athletes. In 2024, she launched Kynsica, which is a multi-team organization dedicated to fostering a winning culture, proving the commercial value of women’s sports, and improving training for female athletes.
Last year, US Soccer announced the launch of the Kang Women’s Institute. The institute is backed by Kang’s investment and designed to advance womens sports through “science, innovation, and elevated best practices.” She has also made impactful donations to multiple women’s sports organizations, most notably, USA Women’s Rugby.
Kang hopes to continue advocating for womens sports and growing the world of womens professional soccer.
“I’m hoping that I could do more and hopefully to move the needle, and it encourages other people to do the same and more,” Kang said to Forbes.
Featured image via Scott Taetsch (The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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